Bill-delivery mechanism for meters.



No. 823,773. PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906.

E. W. GALLAGHER. BILL DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR METERS.

APPLICATION FILED M AY 19, 1904.

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110,823,773. PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906. R. W. GALLAGHER.

BILL DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR METERS.

APPLIOATIION FILED my 19, 1904.

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RICHARD WILLIAM GALLAGHER, OF sAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR To AUTOMATIC METER 00., OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALI- FORNIA.

BILL-DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR METERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 19, 1904. Serial No. 208,670.

Patented June 19,1906.

the casing; but said door cannot be opened ters-such as gas-meters, electrical meters,

water-meters, and the likethe object of my invention being to provide a device by means of which the consumer can at any time obtain a record of the amount measured by the meter.

This device will also prove of value for use by inspectors of gas-meters or electric meters, who, instead of reading the meter, will take a duplicate record of the same, one of V which will be presented to the consumer as a bill and the other will be turned in at the office. A third record will be retained in the meter as a check upon the bill-collector.

My invention, therefore, resides in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts for the above ends hereinafter fully specified, and particularly pointed out In the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section of my im roved apparatus. Fig. 2 is a front view of t e apparatus, the casing bein removed. Fig. 3 Is a vertical section of t e lower portion of the apparatus in the position in which the lever Is deressed. Fig. .4 is a horizontal section on the line A A of Fig. 1. Fi 5 is a front view of the apparatus. Fig. 6 1s a bottom plan view of the recordinglate.

Referring to t e drawings, 1 represents a suitable casing having a door 2 at the front hinged at its upper edge, as shown at 3. Said door has a vertical slot 4 extending centrally thereof, and through said slot extends an operating-lever 5, having a head 6, by which the lever may be vibrated. The lower end of said slot is enlarged, as shown at 7, to such sizeas to permit thehead 6 to pass therethrough, so that when the lever has been depressed to its lowest position and the head is opposite to said slot the door can be swun upward, permitting access to the interior 0 lowest until said lever has first been brou ht to its cation. The importance 0 this feature w1 I appear in the further description of the device. Said lever at its rear end is yoke-shaped and is pivoted at 8 at the back of the machine, being retracted by s rings 9 and the sides of the yoke having s ots 10, through which pass the trunnions 11 of a recording-frame 12. Said frame is oblong in form and has a transverse portion 13, in which is mounted the shaft 14 of recordingwheels 15. At its corners said frame carries vertical guiding-sleeves 16, which slide upon vertical guide-rods 17, secured between an upper horizontal plate 18 and a lower horizontal plate 19. Upon the lower ends of said sleeves is secured a recording-plate 20. The recordin is preferably effected by means of need eoints 21, secured on the under side of the ate 20, which are arranged on the plate in tile form of letters or othor indeX character and perforate the paper to make the desired record. In like manner the recording-wheels print by perforating paper, with needle oints secured upon their peripheries, in the orm of figures. The under side of the recordinglate is on the same level with the bottom of t e recording-wheels. The meters are identified by numbers 51 on the recordinglates. By depressing the lever 5 said w eels and plate are brought down, so as to simultaneously perforate three sheets of paper. These sheets pass from rolls of paper 22, the shafts of which are received in s ring-clamps 23, secured on the under side 0 the horizontal plate 19, a door 24 being rovided in the bottom of the easing for p acing said rolls in position, with their shafts in said clamps. T e three sheets of paper pass over a pad 25, of rubber or other suitable material, supported by said plate 19, which is slotted at t e end, as shown at 26, to permit said sheets of paper to pass to the up or side thereof. Said sheets pass between eed-rollers 27 28, of which the u er two, 27, are revolved by pressure from tl ie ower roller 28, while said lower roller is revolved by pinions 29, secured thereto, moshing with gear-wheels 30, which are loose on the shaft 31 of a winding-up roller 32. Said shaft 31 is revolved intermittently uponthe return or upward motion of the lever by the following construction. To the slotted sides of the yoke are pivotally attached links 33, which are pivoted at their lowerends to levers 34, which revolve looselyupon the shaft 31 of the winding-up roller and carry at their opposite ends pivoted pawls 35, drawn inward by springs 36 to engage ratchet-wheels 37, attached, respectively, to the gear-wheels30. When the lever 5 descends, the links 33 cause the awls 35 to travel over the ratchetwhee s 37, and upon the return motion of the lever said pawls engage said ratchet-wheels and revolve the same, and therefore also the gear-wheels and rollers 27 28, advanc" the sheets of pa er. Two of the sheets 0 aper pass out t ough a slot 38, while the owest sheet passes to the winding-roller 32, being wound up thereon by springs 39 on the shaft 31.

The three recording-wheel's have secured thereto gear-wheels 4'0, which when brought to their upper position mesh with three gearwheels 4142, 43. The gear-wheel 41 is connected by a train of gearing 44 with a shaft 45, comin from the gas or other meter. The gear-whee 41 is on the same shaft with a pinion 46, meshing'with the gear-wheel 42, the latter being of ten times the diameter of the pinion 46, and the gear-wheel 42 in like manner is on the same shaft with a pinion 47, meshing with the gear-wheel 43 of ten times its diameter. The gear-wheels 41 4'2 43 thus represent the thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds'of thousands of cubic feet of gas measured by the meter. It is now, how-' ever, no longer necessary to provide the usual dial-plate, as the meter is no longer read from the dials, but a record is taken. therefrom. These dials may, however, be retained, if desired, as they form a check on the recording device.

The door 2 is locked by a staple 49 or other suitable 100 The strips of paper to furnish the bills are previously printed or stamped with numbers 51, which will correspond to the numbers of the bills.'

The operation ofthe. device is as follows: The gas-bill collector pulls down the lever 5', which causes the recording frame and wheels to descend until the needles thereon perforate the three sheets of pa er which lie on the top of the rubber pad. en the lever 5 rises again under the action ofjsprings 9, the needle-points are withdrawn from the sheets of paper and the pawls en age the ratchetteeth and revolve the feed-rollers, causin the sheets of paper to advance between sai rollers. When the recording-wheels return to their ori 'nal position, they will again mesh with t e gear-wheels 4-1 42 43 either immediately or before said geanwheels have lpadlock 48 and advanced through the distance of one tooth.

im ression has been made a sa e seams The two sheets which project are torn off by the gas-bill collector and are handed to the consumer, and if the bill is at that time paid the two sheets are both suitably stam ed or perforated, as with the word .Paid, and one of them is handed to the consumer and the other is turned in at the oflice, together with the amount collected. If the bill is not paid, one of the sheets is left with the consumer and the other is turned in at the oflice, showing that the bill is not paid. The ascollector will now unlock the door and wil by 1 hand turn back the countin -wheels to zero f andthen after lockin the cor will take a second impression an hand a second slip to the consumer, showing that the indicator now stands at zero and in like manner, as before, turning in a duplicate of the same at the oflice.

It will be observed that by reason of the fact that the casing cannot be 0 ened until an ard is provi' ed against the bill-collector st opening the box, then advancing the recordingwheels by hand, and then taking an impression which. he can present to the consumer, f'orthe third sheet will record that an impres sion has been made after the ori 'nal impressi'on takenwhen the counting w eels were at zero and before that presented to the consumerand showin that thedein'ce has been tampered with. t all times the consumer cantake a record of gas or other commodity supplied consumed up to that time. For the reason that the bills are numbered in consecutive order the consumer will be able to detect at once should any unauthorized person or the bill-collector take a record without his knowledge. After the strip showing the recording-wheels at zero has been handed to the consumer and the bill-collector has departed the consumer can himself go and take another record, showing that the countingwheels are at zero.

This system reduces the amount of bookkeeping required and also reduces the force required to collect the bills, as the bills can be presented by the same person who takes the record of'the consumptlon of gas or other commodity. On account of the bill being immediately presented and paid' in the majority of cases an expensive bookkeeping stafi is not required.

Various modifications of the system may be adopted. For instance, the head of the lever may be removable and may be carried about by the employee or persons supplying t e the head or-key may be retained in the possession of the consumer, so that only upon calli'n upon the consumer for the same and there ore inhis presence, if re ui'red, can the bill-collector make the recor and take the bill; or, if desired, the billcollector and the gas or other-commodity, or, if desired,

to record the numbers thereof, said recording- Wheels in their normal position meshing with said counting-Wheels, and means for advancing said recording-sheets, automatically operated by the movement of said lever, sub stantially as described.

2. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of a set of countingwheels, recording-wheels normally meshing with said counting-wheels, a lever carrying said recording-wheels, said recording-wheels being adapted to be moved onto recordingsheets by said lever, and means automatically operated upon the return movement of the lever for advancing said recording-sheets, substantially as described.

3. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of counting-wheels, recording-wheels having on their peripheries needle-points in the form of figures and having gear-wheels meshing with said countingwh'eels, a shaft upon which said recordingwheels revolve, a frame carrying said shaft, and means for moving said frame, said recording-wheels being adapted to be moved onto recordin -sheets by the movement of said frame, su stantially as described.

4. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of counting-wheels,

recording-wheels having on their peripheries needle-points in the form of figures and having gear-wheels meshing with said countingwheels, a shaft upon which said recordingwheels revolve, a frame carrying said shaft, a plate surrounding the lower portions of said recording-wheels and likewise having on its under side needle-points in the form of letters or characters, and means for moving said frame and plate, said recording-wheels and plate being adapted to be moved onto recording-sheets, substantially as described.

5. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of counting-wheels, recording-wheels having gear-wheels meshing with said countingwheels, a shaft upon which said recording-wheels revolve, a frame carrying said shaft, means for moving said frame, said recording-wheels being adapted to be moved onto recording-sheets by the movement of said frame, and means for taking an impression from said wheelson said sheets, substantially as described.

6. In an apparatus of the character de-. scribed, the combination of counting-wheels, recording-wheels having gear-Wheels meshing with said counting-wheels, a sh'aft on which said recording-wheels revolve, a frame carrying said shaft, a plate surrounding the lower portion of said recording-wheels, means for moving said wheels and plate onto recording-sheets and means for taking an impression therefrom onto said sheets, substantially as described.

7. In an apparatus of the character de scribed, the combination of counting-wheels, a frame carrying a shaft and a recordingplate, recording-wheels on said shaft having gear-wheels arranged in their normal position to mesh with the counting-wheels, said recording-plate and wheels being provided with means for making an impression, guides for said frame guiding its movement to and from the counting-wheels, a lever engagin said frame to move it to recording-sheets, and springs for retracting the lever and frame, substantially as described.

8. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of counting-wheels, a frame carrying a shaft and a recordingplate, recording-wheels on said shaft having gear-wheels arranged in their normal position to mesh with, the counting-wheels, said recording plate and wheels being provided with means for making an impression, guides for said frame guiding its movement to and from the counting-wheels, a lever engaging said frame to move it to recordingsheets, springs for retracting the lever and frame and means automatically operated by the movement of the lever for. advancing the sheets, substantially as described.

9. The combination of a casing, countingwheels, recording-wheels arranged in their normal position to be actuated by said counting-wheels, a frame carrying said recordingwheels, a lever for moving said frame, said lever being accessible from the outside of the casing, the recording-wheels being adapted to be moved onto recording-sheets by said lever, and a door or closure for said casing prevented from be' opened b said lever except when it has een broug t to a position to make an impression from the recordingwheels on the recording-sheets, substantially as described.

10. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of three gear-wheels on separate shafts, the second engaged by a pinion on the same shaft as the first and third by a pinion on the same shaft as the second, three recording-wheels all on the same shaft and severally in meshwith the respective gear-wheels, and means for taking an impression on recording-sheets from said recording-wheels, substantiall as described.

11. In an apparatus of t e character described, the combination of three gear-Wheels, the second engaged by a pinion on the same shaft as the first and the third by a pinion on the same shaft as the second, three recordingmeme wheels all on the same shaft and res ectiveiy In witness whereof I have hereunto set my operated by the gear-wheels, means or talkie hand m the presence of two subscribing witen im ression on recording-sheets fmm sel nesses.

recor lug-wheels, and means for advancing mH e wmum GALLAGEER. said recording-sheets, operated by the return Wmnesses: movement of taking the impression, substan FRANoIs M. Wmem,

tially as described. BESSIE GQRFINEL. 

